Thin tires are good for snowy condition' s to get down to a hard surface. Swamp buggy's use tall/thin tractor tires for less water drag and flotation so they can grab on to the bottom. Mud boggers use wide tires for flotation and high rpm's to get across the top. Same when on sand, wide for flotation so you don't get the axle's hung up. The two duals are still gonna give more surface area than a slightly larger single. The traction problem on the duals is probably because most E rated tires have a highway tread and will slip regardless of size. I went with Cooper A/T's, they were the best tread that I could find for off road and still have an E rating.<br><br>I have a large icy/bumpy hill to climb, then a mile and a half of two track to get into my cabin without a plow. When we got dumped on last month, the truck walked up the hill, and a couple passes with the duals and it was all packed nice and neat. Use to have to get a running start with my '97 z-71 with 285's. I also think the duals help against pitching sideways while plowing. A lot of guys spend big bucks to get V-plows to reduce pitching sideways. A couple more penny's for ya.

 

[quote author=Stamey link=board=5;threadid=8748;start=0#84569 date=1040783636]<br>Getting back to the original question, and followup post, what is the difference in licensing for the weight he plans to pull, 13K?<br><br>Does the 3500 get licensed heavier, or does it just depend on state. I have heard that some states will not license any higher than factory specs, which may get him into trouble pulling that weight.<br>In Virginia, my 2500 has a 10K GVWR but is curiously blank in the GCWR field. I guess that means I can pull as much as I want? <br><br>Chris<br>[/quote]<br><br>In Michigan, vehicle reg. fees are based on the weight rating.

 

My son found out how worthless a dually is yesterday as far as traction is concerned. Went over to a friends house to wire up and frame in her hot tub. Went to back up in the driveway to turn around after the work was done. The rear axle got just off the gravel on to the wet grassy type area. Dropped it into low gear, left the clutch out, and it just sat there. Thought I broke a drive shaft or finally smoked the clutch. Looked in my mirror, left side spining. Looked in the right mirror, right side spining. Hmm, could it be loss of traction? Had to engage the front axle just to get out of the drive way. That's pretty bad and my son just sat there shaking his head and laughing.<br><br>Disclaimer: I have the stock Michelin tires all around with half to three-quarters tread and there was no weight in the back other than the tool box. The grade may have been 1% up hill where I tried to pull out. The tires sunk about and inch and stayed there till I hooked the front axle in.<br>As pappy and a few others have said, there's nothing better on the road when pulling a good bit of weight. This was just for demonstration purposes.

 

[quote author=patriot pearl blue link=board=5;threadid=8748;start=15#85697 date=1041122675]<br><br> cause both my trucks are set at 75 -90 psi all the time, and it just depends on the weather on what i need the tire pressure set to??<br> i would never deflate my radial tires to try and add traction, it would only wear out the outer edge of the tires<br>[/quote]<br><br>I don't deflate to add traction ... just going by the recommendation in the Tire Inflation Pressures pamphlet that came with the truck.<br> It says for E rated tires the front tires should be aired between 50 - 65 psi (light load) or 70 psi (full load) while the rear tires should be 40 psi (light load) and 60 - 65 psi (full load).<br><br> I haven't noticed any abnormal wear due to underinflation (I am pretty paranoid about premature wear ... that is a lot of tires to replace ;D $$$). Do your tires show wear in the middle with 90 psi ?<br><br>PISTOL

 

ACTUALLY-<br> today i was inspecting the tires and noticed i need to rotate them cause the tires are feathering- it has 10,800 now and i havent rotated them yet.<br> <br> they are not wearing in the middle at all, and look pretty good.<br> i use the truck to tow alot, maybe that has alot to do with it?<br> it has michelins on it, and ive been told they are a harder compound tire-<br><br> i keep my ford F450 at 80-90 psi all the time cause it sways in the corners with lower tire pressure- and all the top weight has alot to do with swaying and getting stuck n the ruts on the highway-<br><br> kinda scary sometimes in the ford<br>

 

My fronts are feathering too. Got a few too many miles between rotations. Is this common wear or should I put her on the alignment rack ? <br><br>PISTOL

 

My fronts are &quot;feathering&quot; too.
Maybe I should stop taking exit ramps at 40mph. :

I wear out front tires by driving my dually like a 7,000 pound Porsche.

Pistolwhipt, It might be time for an alignment if the fronts are wearing abnormally for no reason.

 

Im new here and have read with interest your opinions. I have a '95 2500 and have been pulling a 24' gooseneck for a few years ( over 250,000 miles so far). My only complaint is the lack of sufficient brakes with the weights i pull (licensed for 24,000 but have pulled a Gross wt of as much as 35,000. ( I dont recomend it) have had as much as 7000 in the bed alone. <br>I am considering a new purchase and i still am not totally convinced that I want a DRW. <br>Does anyone have experience with the new 6 speed? or has anyone put on a gear splitter? Sometimes i think that would be really nice in the mountains particularly.

 

If you tow anything get a daulie plus a daulie is way cooler then a SRW they look better and are a ton more stable. See sig for my avalanche I drive in the winter hook a 24' enclosed pace to it and 4 sleds inside and you've got yourself a handful hook that on a daulie and let he rip. I have pulled with both trucks and I would never tow a trailer without a daulie not so much more stabe especially when you get out Highballing on the freeway the daulie doesn't wonder all over the road.

 

On all the 2 wheel drive duallies I had [one with 430,000 miles and 4 others in excess of 180,000 miles] a ribbed steering tire on the front and traction tires on the rear, Always kept lots of fuel in the slip tanks and only got stuck once in my own driveway on snow. <br><br>I was on some soft snow and managed to compress it enough to hit the slippery more hard packed stuff underneath.<br><br>I never rotated the tires on the 4x2's and kept the fronts at 60 and rears at 55 psi. Hauled a 53 ft triple hauler with full size E350 vans on it most of their lives. When empty they were ok but not the best in snow as I had to drive a lot different then with a 4x4. Heres some more info...with the ribbed steering tires I would get 80,000 miles on the fronts and 50,000 miles from the rears with all that weight.<br>Without a ribbed on the front, there was maybe 10K difference in the mileage.<br><br>Then I went to 4x4's and I would rotate on my 96' and got less miles on the same tires. ??? Stopped rotating on the 97' and I got more miles.<br>I would get cupping and/or feathering if I took the exits fast.<br> .<br><br>I never rotated the LTX Michelins on the 98' and it had lots of tread left with 55K on the tires.<br>I am on my second set with the 01' but thats because I took one off ramp at 80 mph and peeled the outer edge off from too much heat on the front left and of course I spun about 30K worth of tread off the back ones in about a minute one day. :'(<br>I put a new set of LTX's on when I had 35,000 miles on and now have near 60,000 miles on these tires are barely worn, not rotated.<br><br>Maybe it was just me but I found rotating to not be a benefit.<br><br>I check them often and will flip the inside to outside on the duals if I happened to 'smoke' them a bit...that would be caused by an accidental show of Cummins Power.

 

I thought I would bring this back to the top and to add about licensing. In MO you can put just about any size plate on the truck. The plates go up in 6k incraments and I have 30k plates on mine. You PAY out the a$$ for them though. Normal 18k plates are like 1/10 the price of the 30k. The DMV doesn't seem to care as long as your check clears as to what plate you were putting on it.

 

[quote author=CMN_NOT_STROKN link=board=5;threadid=8748;start=30#98943 date=1044047319]<br>I thought I would bring this back to the top and to add about licensing. In MO you can put just about any size plate on the truck. The plates go up in 6k incraments and I have 30k plates on mine. You PAY out the a$$ for them though. Normal 18k plates are like 1/10 the price of the 30k. The DMV doesn't seem to care as long as your check clears as to what plate you were putting on it.<br>[/quote]<br><br>Not in Virginia. The DMV did not even want to give me 20000 pound plates until I took the book in and showed them that is what the maunfacturer rated it for. Even then, they were hesitant to give me the 20k plates. I wanted 26 to be safe and they said no way. Maybe I need to liscense it in another state.

 

License in MO! Just cost ALOT. Like I said NO problem getting 30s on my truck...except for the pocket book.

 

[quote author=dieseldude4x4 link=board=5;threadid=8748;start=30#99281 date=1044125163]

Not in Virginia. The DMV did not even want to give me 20000 pound plates until I took the book in and showed them that is what the maunfacturer rated it for. Even then, they were hesitant to give me the 20k plates. I wanted 26 to be safe and they said no way. Maybe I need to liscense it in another state.
[/quote]

My 3500 registration says 6500 EW, 6590 GW
I gotta run it with less than 1/4 tank of fuel, 5 qts low on oil, put helium in the tires and make sure I hit the bathroom before I hit the road to keep from being overweight running empty

 

Have had my dually for just a month, wow, I’ll not go back to a SRW for towing. Pull a cattle trailer and 20k flatbed, goosenecks. Truck is really stable compared to what I’ve had before. Don’t mind it for just runnin around either, I put on more miles doing that than towing.<br><br>Hey CMN, I didn’t know what to license my truck for when I got it either, put on 36k for now. Mine not so high – farm tags ;D. But … even though we can buy the license can we scale it at the coup???<br>